The Devil All The Time Trailer:
Although Netflix has put together a stellar and star-studded cast for their latest psychological drama, the movie falls flat. If you enjoy a movie full of un-redeeming characters that set to the backdrop of rural Appalachia, look no further, Netflix has you covered. A shady cop, a sexist-preacher and a suicidal couple, you just wrapped up the plot line of the latest Netflix film. Although Netflix listed a full cast list of A-Listers, the ensemble wasn’t enough to make the movie worth watching again.
The stacked cast includes Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, Bill Skarsgård, Haley Bennett, Eliza Scanlen, Riley Keough, Mia Waskiowska and Harry Melling just to name a few. In case you don’t know the name Harry Melling, he plays Dudley in Harry Potter and gives a pretty memorable performance as a preacher with a jar of spiders at the local church.
There are two storylines in the movie that don’t connect at all, except for one small scene at the very end of the movie. The first plot we see a struggling rural neighborhood in the center of West Virginia and the second plot we a couple of serial murderers (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough) that kill hitchhikers on their way from town to town.
The movie, based on the novel of the same name, centers around a small Appalachian community on the edge of the Ohio/West Virginia border in the 1940s and 1960s. The movie takes place in two different eras between father and son Willard (Bill Skarsgård) and Arvin (Tom Holland) as they deal with the traumatic events that shape both of their lives.
We enter the story from Willard’s perspective, returning to the small town after the war, suffering from PTSD from the aftermath. As we move forward, we see that Arvin is crippled by the same struggles his father went through just a few decades before as he attempts to break away from his father’s past and start a new path of his own. After the death of both of his parents, Arvin moves in with his grandparents and their step daughter, Lenora (Eliza Scanlen). The focal point of the film centers around the church and how each member of the film is addicted to it in some way, whether through love or hate.
As the movie progresses, Arvin’s step-sister Lenora becomes a victim of the new preacher in town (Robert Pattinson). After being abused, she realizes that she has become pregnant and due to her view of the “sins in the eyes of the Lord” she commits suicide. Her death prompts her step-brother’s vengeance, taking out his wrath on the preacher.
Most of the movie is narrated by an undisclosed person. While this tactic is used a lot throughout other films, in this instance it takes up most of the plot. If you removed the narrator, the storyline doesn’t fit together. You use this type of storytelling to add value to the story, not to connect the plot line together, so this part didn’t work for me.
The fabric of the movie is mostly based on the examination of a smaller town in America’s heartland that suffers from extraordinary acts of violence in the name of faith, where we discover that the motives of the characters are inherently evil.
In case the above synopsis hasn’t given it away yet, the movie is depressing and dramatic with terrible characters that have horrible motives. Also, there is no need for the cast to be so large, half of the actors/actresses do not make it more than fifteen minutes of screen time.
Although Netflix certainly didn’t waste any money on building the ensemble, the story weaves and intertwines the characters in unnecessary ways. I love celebrities as much as the next person, but you know it’s a bad sign when you roll your eyes when another recognizable face comes on the screen. You are almost distracted by them as an actor versus seeing the character. Spanning over multiple different storylines, you become tangled within each of the different character’s paths.
While the film is fine, people will 100% be logging in to watch because it is available at their fingertips. Netflix once again makes a play for being your one-stop box office destination, pushing theaters even further to the sidelines as they struggle to re-open even with the supposed summer blockbuster “Tenet” backing it.
In a statement from Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, Netflix is making large strides in the space, stating that it is the next Friday Night Movie Box-Office experience and with Netflix pulling in large talents like this, it's no wonder people are tuning it.
So, did it have a huge cast? Yes. Does that mean it qualifies for the Oscars? Not even close.
Film Score – B-
The Devil All The Time is now available to stream on Netflix.
And that’s the sitch.
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